Ceres vs Synthetic Genomics: Who's the Best?

Background: This is a first round, West Regional match-up between #5 seed Ceres and #12 seed Synthetic Genomics in the 2011 Transformative Technologies tourney, from Biofuels Digest.

Voting: Open to all Biofuels Digest subscribers. Voting links are in the Biofuels Digest daily newsletter. To subscribe (free), visit here.

The winner gets: Most votes advances to the second-round (round of 32), and a shot at the Biofuels Sweet Sixteen.

The loser: Goes home.

Laurels: Ceres is the 13th ranked company in the 2010-11 50 Hottest Companies in Bioenergy poll. Synthetic Genomics  is currently #30.

The match-up: Synthetic Genomics has its celebrated $600 million partnership with ExxonMobil to investigate microalgae and cyanobacteria for commercial platform for fuels and chemicals. Ceres is commercializing its Blade energy crops, which are high-performing, high-yield energy grasses – with plans to increase drought and pest tolerance as well as further increase yields. Ceres recently filed for an IPO.